Five quoting mistakes that cost tradesmen jobs

1. The slow quote

This is the big one. The customer is warmest the moment you are stood in their kitchen nodding about the work. Every day you take to "send it over" cools that interest and gives a competitor room to get in first. Quotes handed over same-day win far more often than ones sent within the week — not because they are cheaper, but because they land while the customer still cares.

Fix: quote on site, before you leave. If that sounds impossible, your process is slow, not the on-site quote unrealistic. A price library and a mobile tool make it a 60-second job.

2. The vague scope

A quote that just says "bathroom refurb — £4,200" invites trouble. The customer does not know what they are getting, so they assume the most, and you carry it. Then extras feel like you are squeezing them, and the job sours.

Fix: itemise. List the work line by line so the price is visibly made of real things, and what is *not* included shows by its absence. A clear scope protects your margin and builds trust at the same time.

3. Forgetting the boring numbers

Materials mark-up. Overheads. The right VAT treatment. The thankless parts of a price are exactly the ones a rushed quote drops — and each one you forget comes straight out of your pocket. Forget the reverse charge on a big subcontract job and, instead of collecting, you reissue the invoice.

Fix: never build a price from memory. Defaults for margin and overheads, automatic VAT per line, nothing left to a tired head on a Friday. (More on the tax side in the CIS domestic reverse charge, explained.)

4. No signature, no commitment

A verbal "yeah, go on then" is not a yes you can hold anyone to. With no record of acceptance, scope creep is one conversation away and you have nothing to point to. And the invoice that turns up later feels like it came from nowhere.

Fix: capture the agreement the moment you get it. An "Approved" signed on the phone screen at the kerb, one tap that turns the accepted quote into a numbered invoice — the commitment is on record while everyone is still smiling.

5. No follow-up

Plenty of quotes get neither a yes nor a no — they just go quiet. The tradesman who takes silence for a refusal walks away from a job that was one nudge from closing. People are busy; a polite follow-up two or three days later closes jobs that would otherwise have evaporated.

Fix: keep a simple list of quotes sent and their status, and chase the open ones. You do not need a thousand-feature CRM — just a trail of who you quoted, for what, and whether they replied.

Fast, itemised, complete, signed, chased. Nail those five and you will win jobs off tradesmen who are better than you with the tools.

Notice none of the five is "be cheaper". Price is rarely the real reason a quote loses. Speed, clarity and follow-up win far more work than shaving your margin ever will — and unlike a discount, they cost you nothing.

[ Turn quotes into signed jobs faster → ]

If you fix only one of the five this week, fix the slow quote — start with how to quote a job without underpricing yourself.